Grey's Anatomy recap: 'I Saw Her Standing There'
Although she didn’t have much of a storyline on last night’s episode, Bailey was popping off with some of the best lines of the hour, titled “I Saw Her Standing There.” It might be a weird place to start a recap of the evening’s festivities, but I was rather delighted by Bailey’s funny lines, and — as we saw — she was, too. So let’s get into them.
The whole string of great zingers began when Bailey was in on a surgery that found her, Avery, Avery’s visiting mother Catherine (the ever-glorious Debbie Allen!), and Webber working on a patient with huge, basketball-sized testicles. They needed to be reduced. Turns out that Bailey had taken the surgery from Kepner, who asked her to step in mostly because the recently sexed farm girl didn’t want to be around Avery, Catherine, and big testicles all at the same time.
To explain, Bailey delivered her first, ball-tastically great line: “So nuts to her!” she said of Kepner. The joke provoked the other doctors to groan a bit, and that’s when the assassin Bailey delivered yet another gut-busting line: “I spend most of my day in the bowel — doesn’t mean I don’t laugh or fart!” And later, that surgery fed into a comment she made to Webber, after a little showdown with Avery, over Catherine. “I was just thinking that all of that over there took some pretty big balls,” Bailey intoned after watching the man-vs.-man infraction go down.
It was such great humor from a character who is typically pretty militant and crazy. Last week she was serving up hilarious lines and scenes, too — remember when she was maniacally cleaning that microwave and talking about how it was a “horror movie”? I will say, however, that despite how funny Bailey has been of late, her storylines have definitely been lacking. She hasn’t been involved in anything too great, and last night, it mostly seemed like she was bouncing around in the various orbits of other people. But after thinking about that a bit, I guess the truth is that not every doctor on this over-populated show can have big, juicy storylines every single week.
That’s certainly the case, too, because I feel like Owen’s storyline was so lackluster tonight, too. He didn’t have much to do except borrow a tie from Webber, have a drink with a sulking Callie, talk Derek through his issues, and pine a bit over Cristina before taking residence in Derek’s trailer. I realized, though, that Kevin McKidd was the director of last night’s hour, so that probably contributed to his lessened role on the show for the night. It’s hard to be in front of the camera when you’re behind it, too. Kudos to him to a rather well-directed episode.
NEXT: Other bad storylines (Derek!), and Cristina gets friendly with Dr. Feeney
While I’m at it, I might as well get into the last sub-par storyline of the evening: Derek’s. And, in fact, all of his happenings have been rather bottom-of-the-barrel lately. “I hate teaching,” Derek said to Meredith (who was keeping her successes from him, so he wouldn’t be jealous) at one point during the episode, and I think that’s certainly a sentiment that most viewers would agree with. We hate seeing you teach, too! My advice: Get that hand fixed somehow so you can get back into the OR. Retiring him to the classroom seems a bit premature — the guy is not as old as Dr. Feeney!
Speaking of Dr. Feeney, his interactions with Cristina this week were delightful. In fact, that storyline has only been increasing in interest and weight. I was shocked – shocked! — when we saw Cristina in a sexual relationship with her boss, Rex (okay, Dr. Parker, but I’m still gonna call him Rex). But I realized that wasn’t just a gag for shock value — it was designed to create an even better storyline, one where Cristina got a heart. The Grinch’s heart grew!
As Cristina got to know her sex-partner Rex more, she learned that he had designs on pushing out Dr. Feeney (actual name: Dr. Thomas), mostly because his techniques were outdated. Cristina screamed about ethics and then helped out Dr. Feeney in spite of Rex. She even blew off Rex sex so she could go have an Old Fashioned (so adorbs!) with Dr. Feeney — it was beyond cute. She had a great line, too, during the episode, when she was ribbing Feeney for his old techniques. “Was that before or after,” she asked, “you learned to use sheep’s blood to lift a witch’s curse?”
There was quite a bit of progress on the Arizona front this week, which felt simultaneously refreshing and expected. She spent most of the hour getting fitted for a prosthetic. At first, naturally, she was really cranky about it — and she even yelled at Callie in front of the prosthetics doctor (the super cute Ethan Embry from Empire Records!) — but eventually softened up. (I wasn’t sure she ever would.)
Arizona’s first steps saw her fall — right into the arms of one of the two people she hates most in the world right now: Karev’s. But it led to some sweet moments between the old friends. “You didn’t completely destroy my department, did you?” she joked, while Karev told Arizona: “We need you back.” In so many ways we need Arizona back! But again, it seemed like she was coming around to being more of herself — with more than just her interaction with Karev. Case in point, when at the end of the episode Callie announced that she was going to go sleep at Mark’s place, Arizona made room on the couch and offered to turn on American Bake Off. That questionable television selection aside, it was a sweet moment.
NEXT: Kepner and Avery keep having sex!
On a more carnal note, there was a lot of sex last night between — you guessed it — Avery and Kepner, who were screwing like rabbits and ending each encounter by saying it was the last time. What’s going to happen here? I don’t know, but I’m rooting for them to get together — or at least keep having sex on screen. Any woman who gets to be with Jesse Williams — even if it’s just acting on television — is very lucky. Those eyes! They melted me and my watching companions last night (hi, Kelsey and Laura!) to butter. There are other places we could use some butter with Jesse, too…but oh, this is a family website.
Also in the love category: Webber and Catherine. Love, love, love this pairing! As much as I am into what’s percolating between them, though, I can’t help but feel my heart ache a bit for Adele. I know she’s basically gone — and found new love of her own, in her current state — but something feels a little wrong about it. (BTW: Where is Adele? Can she be in an episode?) But on this front, I’m going to be like Scarlett O’Hara and think about that another day and, instead, just enjoy what’s going on between Catherine and Webber. Hopefully more? Hopefully Debbie Allen may become more regular on the show? A lovesick fool like me can dream.
Very much lately — and this is a topic I fully intend to delve into much more in future recaps, as this one is getting long in the tooth — but the new crop of interns this season is falling short. Super short! Like, really short. But I don’t think it’s the fault of the actors by any means. I think it has to do with the issue I discussed above — Grey’s over-population problem — that none of these kids has broken out. But will they ever have the chance to if they’re not given good material? Clearly, the minds behind Grey’s are angling to discover the next great generation for this show, but they need something juicy besides success with syringes and tumor discovery — something to chew on! — to make that happen. Time for something big for Tina, Gaius, Camilla, Jerrika, and Tessa.
What’d you think, Grey’s watchers? Do you agree that the show is a little bit over-populated? Whose storylines are you loving? Hating? Did you find Bailey’s one-liners as funny as I did?
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
